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Visit and the surrounding villages and stay in bed & breakfast accommodation:

St Dogmael's, Pembrokeshire. In Welsh called Llandudoch. St Dogmael's is a large village 1 mile out of Cardigan town at the point where the Teifi estuary begins to widen to the sea. The houses climb the steep hill-side above the tree-guarded river. Salmon are a major interest. The Abbey of St Mary the Virgin was the key to the early growth of St Dogmael's. The ruins consist of the North transept and the North and West walls of the nave. The North transept is early 15th century. The nave walls are 13th century. Some interesting carvings are still preserved, including a stone cadaver now placed in a recess in the North transept and various fragments collected in the infirmary. The ruins are well laid out with green lawns by the Ministry of Public Building and Works.

The Abbey was founded by Robert Martin, Lord of Cemmaes, in 1115. It was one of the rare foundations in Britain of the Order of Tiron, founded by St Bernard of Abbeville. The rule was similar to that of the better-known Cistercians. St Dogmael's possessed two daughter houses in Wales, on Caldey Island and at Pill near Milford Haven, but they never played the prominent part in Welsh history of abbeys such as Strata Florida or Valle Crucis.

The parish church, built in 1847, stands alongside the Abbey ruins. It contains a 7-ft stone pillar with an Ogham inscription on one edge and a Latin inscription identifying “Sagranus, son of Cunotamus”. The date is 6th century. Other early inscribed stones suggest that the church stands on the site of an ancient Celtic “clas” (monastery). The Ogham inscription at St Dogmael's supplied the key to the successful deciphering of the Ogham alphabet in 1848.

St Dogmael's main street twists at the Cardigan end and sets itself resolutely to climb the hill-side. Many of the houses have attractively layered walls of contrasting light and dark brown stone. About 1 mile beyond St Dogmael's towards the sea are Poppit Sands, complete with car parks and caravan sites.